Look for it on Netflix’s instant streaming menu.

In this car-guys world of ours, sadly, not very often you cross paths with people as down-to-earth and as willing-to-help as this kid.  Best of luck Charlie!

Be sure to visit Speedhunters site and cast your vote for one unique, great car built with pure blood, sweat and tears…  …and while at it, visit Charlies web site, C3 Garage.

While at it, I stumbled upon this jewel that just happens to be for sale…

Heres the mod list:

Suspension -
Tein Super Racings 16k,14k spring rates. 05-07 STI
GT Spec subframe brace
Carbing front strut tower bar with BCS and tow took through the hood
Cusco center brace
Cusco T brace
Cusco H brace
Cusco 22 MM 05+ STI rear Sway bar
Cusco 22 MM Front sway bar
Cusco rear subframe brace
Cusco trailing arms
Cusco laterial links 05 STI
Kartboy STI rear end links
Kartboy Front end links
Stop tech 6 piston Big Brake Kit
Whiteline Anti lift Kit race version
Whiteline center roll adjuster kit
30 Point WRC full weld in roll cage

Bushings -
Kartboy shifter bushings
Kartboy rear shifter bushing
Kartboy rear crossmember bushing
Kartboy short throw shifter
kartboy Transmission bushings
TIC rear diff race bushings
Beatrush propeller shaft bushings

Wheels/Tires -
APR extended wheel studs front and rear
Kics lug nuts
Volk Racing CE28N 18×10.5 +18
Falken Azenis RT615K 315/30/18 Tires

Interior -
OMP Red Seude Deep Dish steering wheel
Splash WRX/STI 93-07 Short hub adaptor
WORKS Bell quick release
Takata long harnesses X2
Sparco Harness bar plates
Bride Zeta III Type L X2
Sparco Seat Mounts

Engine -
Turbo XS full turbo back TI muffler
Access Port V1 05 STI
APS Equal length header

Exterior -
Voltex rear deiffuser
Cusco lip painted white 04-05 STI
Karlton Fender Flare Kit

Price:  $27K…  not bad at all…

All the right mods, nothing less, nothing more.  Tastefully done and super clean!   Just how I like ‘em…

More:  NASIOC

I just admire this guy and what he does…  Great weekend boys and girls!

Last Sunday morning and with the help of the guys at SneakyRacing.com, we were able to celebrate our first Cars & Coffee meeting.  People started arriving at the Krispy Kreme  parking lot around 7am.  The meeting lasted about 3 hours and easily, more than 50 cars got to be part of the fun.  Great people, great cars, a great way to start a beautiful Sunday morning…  Oh, great donuts and coffee too…

Here are some shots:

I’ve developed this theory that might explains why I now have this flare fetish and it has to do with what I call the “damned Subaru hubs”.  See, with Subarus it is nearly impossible to fit aggressive yet functional wheel and tire combos.  You might get to fit 9-10 inch wheels under the wheel wells but in most cases you need to use a tire so narrow that it completely defeats the purpose of the wide wheels.   On top of the stretched tires you need to dial up a ridiculous amount of camber and ultimately end up with a setup that is nowhere near functional.  A waste of money if you ask me.(Yeah, I’m a HellaFlush hater…)

Nakai San of RWB was one of the few guys that managed to blend looks and functionality when it came to fender flares and completely ridiculous yet amazingly functional wide wheel and tire combos.  In the Subaru world, specifically in the GD chassis, I think the people at L’aunsport where the gurus when it came to wider fenders, but these are too wild for my taste.  Well apparently I’m not the only one that thinks like that, the Levy brothers from LIC came up with one of the nicest set of fender flares ever on a Subaru, but these are a one-of.  Bummer…

Well the other day, on one of my late night net surfing sessions, I came across one of the nicest street STi’s I’ve seen as of yet and it happens to have one of the best looking set of fender flares.  I’m talking about Lew Karlton’s 06 STi.

“Originally, the car was supposed to be my daily driver and remain stock, but after it’s first autox, the mod bug bit me hard and I ended up building my car for the STU class.”  Karlton explains, and man do I feel identified with those words.  After a few years in the STU class, he felt that he needed to be more competitive so he moved to SM, that’s where the fun began.

One thing led to another and now this commuter boasts a bit more than 400 hp and 380 ft/lb of torque, and since SM allows for wider wheels and tires, it was time to invest in some serious, functional stance.

Among a variety of different wheels, Karlton went with what happens to be my favorite wheel: the SSR Type C-RS in a mind blowing 18×10.5 +25 size!

In order to accommodate that wide of a wheel he developed the Karlton Fender Flares that you see here:

Dont be fooled by how well kept this car is, this is no show car, this thing sees some abuse around the cones every now and then.

Here is a somewhat up to date list of mods he made in order to be competitive in SM:

Engine Mods
- Built shortblock – Darton sleeves, copper o-rings, JE 100mm coated pistons, BC pro rods, ACL race bearings, Nitrided crank, Cosworth modified oilpump, ARP headstuds
- Built heads – GSC S1 268/266 cams, Cosworth +1mm SS intake/ Inconel exhaust valves, BC valvesprings/Ti retainers, PnP, Bowl blend
- Full-Race twinscroll kit
- Garrett gt3076r 1.06 twinscroll Ceramic coated
- Tial 38mm mv-s wastegates
- TIGWERKS ewg mufflers
- Tial Q BOV
- PTP turbo blanket
- Custom 4” intake
- Hallman Pro RX MBC
- Perrin FMIC with stock bumper beam and counter clockwise flow piping
- Perrin lightweight crank pulley
- Deatschwerks 300lph fuel pump
- Bosch 044 fuel pump
- Custom surgetank
- SX adjustable fpr
- 07 STI top feed fuel rails (Aeromotive rails waiting to go on)
- 07 STI tgv deletes
- Hondata intake manifold gaskets
- RC engineering 1600cc injectors
- Full 80mm Magnaflow Ti catback exhaust with Burns Stainless mufflers
- Crawford Performance air/oil separator
- Hydra Nemesis full standalone
- Tune by Mike Warfield(GST Motorsports) on E85 fuel
- Odyssey pc680 battery
- KillerB ultimate oil pickup, baffle plate/windage tray, oilpan

Suspension
- Custom valved JRZ RS Pro coilovers with Hypercoil springs/ Eibach tenders
- Ground Control camber plates front and rear
- Whiteline 27-29mm swaybar front and rear
- Kartboy rear endlinks
- Group N lateral link bushings
- TIC front and rear trailing arm bushings
- MSI Trailing Arms
- Whiteline roll center adjusters
- Whiteline caster bushings
- Cusco cf rear strut tower bar

Driveline
- ACT sprung 6 puck clutch
- ACT streetlight flywheel
- Torque Solution motor/pitch stop mounts
- Group N transmission mount
- TIC race rear differential bushings
- TIC outrigger bushings
- TIC bodacious bushing bundle
- Kaaz Super Q 1.5 way rear LSD
- ACPT cf driveshaft

Exterior
- Genuine V-limited front lip
- Karlton fender flares
- Passenger side foglight housing

Interior
- Sparco Evo2 driver side seat
- Sparco Pro2000 passenger seat
- Buddyclub super low down seat rail(driver)
- Wedge engineering/Sparco rails/sliders with aluminum sidemounts(passenger)
- Innovate Motorsports LC-1 wideband with XD-16 gauge
- Defi BF boost and oil pressure gauges with controller
- ATI gauge pod
- Rear seat removed

Wheels/Brakes
- Wedsport TC105N 18×10.5 +12 with Yokohama Neova AD08 285/30/18
- SSR competition type c-rs 18×10.5 +25 with Hoosier A6 285/30/18…

…and a few others

- Girodisc 2 piece rotors front and rear
- Hawk HP+ pads front and rear

A few other mods were just caried over from STU, like coilovers and such…

Man I miss the good old AutoX days…

For the build thread on Karlton’s STi, visit IWSTI

The Perfect Exposure

The Underdogs

These guys rock!

Thursday night this dude was competing on the MotoX Best Trick event where he tried to pull what they call a Corked 720.  Well, he didn’t succeeded on the first try so he immediately went for a second attempt.  This time he not only landed on his side, but his bike landed on his right leg, breaking it and his right ankle.  Ouch!

He tried to stand up only to realize a couple of very bad just happened.  See, this weekend, something called the Pastranathon was supposed to take place.  He was supposed to compete on a couple of events at the 17th X-Games and also make his debut as a NASCAR driver…  Yeah that never happened…

Frustrating, I know, but there’s where my oppinion about this guy took a turn for the best.  All right, the NASCAR thing went kaput,  but what about the other X-games events?  Well, what happened next was just incredible.

Overnight Pastrana’s Rally Team’s mechanics went to work on making it possible for Travis to be able to pilot his STi without using his right foot to push the throttle pedal and they came up with this:

Now those are not some paddle shifters like we see in modern super cars, Travis’ STi is a “stick shift”.  These are steering wheel mounted throttle controllers.

In went the newly relocated throttle control system, and off he went to test it.

Then he went and competed on the Rallycross event, where he drove a total of 18 laps with his broken leg taped to the transmission tunnel of the Subaru, controlling both the brake and the clutch pedals with his left foot and the steering wheel, throttle and e-brake with his hands.

Incredibly, he not only made it to the final but he nearly took a podium position and a bronze medal.  Unfortunately, he crashed the Subaru against a concrete barrier and couldn’t finish the race.  Despite of all that, he delivered and he pleased his fans and that  is amazing in my book.

I’ve never seen such an effort being made by any other athlete so I now have tons of respect for this guy.  My hat’s off to TP.